Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letters to Editor
  • Published:

Developmental Behaviour of the Abdominal Histoblasts in the Housefly

Nature New Biology volume 241, pages 94–96 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

THERE are advantages in using the single layered insect epidermis for analysis of polarity and pattern formation in multicellular organisms1–3. In insects other than Diptera the repeating segmental gradients and intersegmental membranes, and the influence of segmental margins on bristle and scale orientation, have been demonstrated by skin grafting4–8. In higher Diptera, epidermal development is different; during metamorphosis the larval epidermal cells break down completely and the adult epidermis is formed by proliferation and spreading of imaginal disk cells9,10. I query whether the information for polarity and segmentation is inherent in the imaginal cells or whether the larval system provides some sort of blueprint for their spreading.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

References

  1. Wigglesworth, V. B., The Control of Growth and Form: A Study of the Epidermal Cell in an Insect (Cornell University Press, New York, 1959).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Locke, M., Adv. Morph., 6, 33 (1967).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lawrence, P. A., Adv. Insect Physiol., 7, 197 (1970).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Locke, M., J. Exp. Biol., 36, 459 (1959).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Piepho, H., Biol. Zbl., 74, 467 (1955).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Marcus, W., Zool. Anz., 26, 168 (1963).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Stumpf, H., Naturwiss., 52, 522 (1965).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lawrence, P. A., J. Exp. Biol., 44, 607 (1966).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Snodgrass, R. E., Smithson. Misc. Coll., 122, 1 (1954).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Robertson, C. W., J. Morph., 59, 351 (1936).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Maas, A. H., Wilhelm Roux' Archiv., 143, 515 (1948).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Sobels, F. H., Genitica, 26, 117 (1952).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zimmermann, W., Z. Vererb Lehre., 86, 327 (1954).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Lobbecke, E. A., Biol. Zbl., 77, 209 (1958).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Emmert, W., Wilhelm Roux., Archiv., 169, 87 (1972).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Nickel, C. A., and Wagoner, D. E., J. Econ. Entomol., 63, 1385 (1970).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Bautz, A. M., Arch. Zool. Exp. Gen., 112, 157 (1971).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Stern, C., Genetic Mosaics and Other Essays (Harvard University Press, Mass., 1968).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Tokunaga, C., and Stern, C., Devel. Biol., 20, 411 (1969).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. G. BHASKARAN

    Present address: Zoecon Corporation, 975 California Avenue, Palo Alto, California, 94304

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801

    G. BHASKARAN

Authors
  1. G. BHASKARAN
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

BHASKARAN, G. Developmental Behaviour of the Abdominal Histoblasts in the Housefly. Nature New Biology 241, 94–96 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio241094a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio241094a0

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing